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books, let's get literate! 2009

My sudden realization halfway through this book: it's set in Canada.

It's like watching a foreign movie with subtitles—those subtitles aren't going to convey everything, so if you're me you're going to read a bizarre form of American culture assumption into everything and then be alarmed when SURPRISE! the book is not set in the U.S., you conceited American (I am and I own it). I kept wondering why the cops were so nice, to be honest. It was a toss up over what was more interesting: the actual mystery or the fact that the police were not doing their jobs as I have seen police do their jobs. In other words, they weren't being pushy assholes and locking the protagonist up on flimsy charges! If this book had been set in say, Little Rock, well....it would be a character study instead of Dooley: Troubled Youth Sleuth because he would've been spending most of it in an interrogation chair.

It is also possible I have been watching too much CSI: Miami, but Horatio would've had that shit wrapped up in 40 minutes with 5 minutes left over to provide the happy ending and rescue some damsels plus 15 minutes to stand around and look attractive, but then again: there wouldn't have a been a story so hey! Not all detectives can have such awesome shades.


Dooley May Have Taken the Fall, But Horatio Would Have Juggled the Crime While Looking Hot As Hell

Ryan Dooley has been in trouble in the past, so when he finds the dead kid at the bottom of the ravine, possibly pushed, possibly a suicide, he realizes that his problems with the law might be coming around again to pay him another visit. Dooley lives with his uncle, a former cop who keeps Dooley straight with a strict schedule and a tiresome routine of check-in's. There's also the dead kid's sister, Beth, who is beautiful and so far out of Dooley's reach she might as well be a star. Once Dooley finds the kid, the police like him as the prime suspect for murder and other crimes, and everyone around him—his uncle, Beth, anyone he would care to know—thinks he's not only guilty but possibly dangerous. Dooley's attempts to clear his name and lead a normal life cause more problems, and all the while Dooley is trying to make sense of his current issues, he's attempting to find a sense of forgiveness for the crimes he did commit.

"I talked to that homicide cop again, the one who they called when Mark...when he died." Her eyes were burning into him. "When I told him I'd talked to you about getting hypnotized, he told me about you."
Oh.
"I bet some people think you're pretty cool," he said.
It was true. A certain kind of person found him very cool. A certain kind of girl, too.
"Well, I don't," she said, confirming what Dooley had already figured out. "Not even remotely. I think what you did is despicable."
Geeze, the cop told her that?
"So you don't want to help me, fine, don't help me. Just stay away from me, okay? Stay away from me." Tears glistened in her eyes, but they weren't sad tears. No way. They were mad tears, like what she really wanted to do was hit him.

Dooley Takes The Fall was really good. I don't read a lot of crime novels, or murder mysteries, so it was a nice surprise. Dooley is such a great guy. He's been in some hard positions and made some shitty choices, but underneath it all he's learning and trying to fit back into the world, fighting substance addiction and learning to process his frustration and anger, making mistakes anyone could make at any time, although DRAMATIZED (there were sadly no musical numbers) because of his past. During parts of this story it's easy to get just as frustrated and angry as Dooley gets, as people come down hard on his efforts to move on and have a life outside what he did, be a normal 17 year old and a good person who wants things that would make him fit in: friends, a a partner, the trust of his guardian. It's not easy, though.

Dr Calvin: Say you find yourself in a situation where your peers are drinking or doing drugs. What do you do, Ryan?
Dooley: Join the fuck in.
Dr. Calvin: Let me rephrase that, Ryan. What should you do?
Dooley: Why is it a guy's always supposed to do what he should do? Why can't he once in a while do whatever the hell he wants to do?

Cue Dooley making a mistake, but boy, I sure did laugh about it.

When another murder takes place and Dooley is implicated because of the violent nature, Dooley's past starts to surface. What he did is as much of a mystery to the reader as the mystery of the dead kid is to Dooley. It comes out as the story progresses and Dooley deals with the brick walls of police work, a seemingly unsympathetic uncle, and uncertainty about his future—not knowing whether his past mistakes will get him pinned for crimes he didn't commit. The best part about this story is really liking Dooley, despite his exterior of brutality he doesn't do much to discourage in people around him. It's easy and hard to root for him, diverse and shocking as his past is, with an interesting mystery to solve as well. I did not figure it out, although I am mystery-dumb, and never know who the Big Bad is unless I cheat viciously and read the last chapter, but I try not to be weak most of the time.

My favorite part was discovering what Dooley had done, and why the police kept an eye on Dooley as the kid who had fallen back into old habits and done back into a life of horrible crime! I feel like a loser saying that it adds depth to Dooley's character, but...it adds depth to Dooley's character? If possible, it made me all the more certain that Dooley is someone who I would want on my side in a knife fight. That's really inappropriate to say because of Dooley's history, but if I got any feeling from this novel it was that Dooley was gentle and probably sweet, and like anyone else, pulled a bad draw his first time around. Dooley's story makes you consider crime, and what it means to be criminal, and also what forgiveness and how sometimes, it doesn't matter if it's external—sometimes the key is something stupidly sentimental, like forgiving yourself.

This book reminded me a lot of The Body of Christopher Creed, you know, without all the fake science: similar narrators, dealing with death and the past and misdeeds of a misspent youth! PERHAPS if you like one you will also like the other (not that I can get anyone to read Creed, though, sob).